By: Nick Gambino
Tesla and Elon Musk are about to earn some serious brownie points with nerds. It’s just been announced that the next software update will include the ability to play a collection of classic Atari games.
Tesla’s vehicle software version 9.0 intends to include the games as Easter eggs. The retro games will of course be playable but only when the car is stopped. Musk made sure to make this point very clear when announcing it. You’d think it would go without saying but some people these days…
“Some of best classic Atari games coming as Easter eggs in Tesla V9.0 release in about 4 weeks,” Musk said in a tweet.
As the founder of Tesla and SpaceX is known to do, he replied with additional information when asked by followers. After someone asked him what games would be making their way to the electric vehicle and then listing off their favorites Ms. Pac-Man, Food Fight, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Tempest and Missile Command, Musk offered up some info. “Hoping to include the last three in this release, with pole position linked to actual car steering wheel (while stationary tbc haha),” he said.
Though you would have to be at a full stop to play Pole Position it would be cool to use the actual steering wheel in a car to play the game. No matter how advanced car racing games are these days, there’s no substitute for the feel of your hands being at 10 and 2 in a real car.
If Musk has his way, and he usually does (perks of being the boss), future updates will include a lot more integrated gameplay. In a later tweet he invited game developers to apply to the company to help develop games to specifically make use of the touch screen and the car itself.
Of course this is nothing more than a novelty. How often do you sit in your car without the intent of driving it? Not as often as it would require to make this a daily part of your life. But still, that doesn’t make it any less cool. It’ll help take off some of the edge when Matt’s 20 mins late, forcing you to wait outside his house while he “takes a quick shower.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Gambino is a regular script writer and tech beat reporter for NewsWatch. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.
